Silent Hunter V

We rig for silent running and spend some time with a lot of seamen.

There's just something about submarine movies. The tension, derived from anything set in a sub being the ultimate in locked box dramas, is always palpable. Then there's the precise, stalking nature of submarine combat - whether it be low tech WW2 epics like Das Boot, or more modern classics like Crimson Tide, there's something unique about the war beneath the waves.

The Silent Hunter series has been exploring the lower tech side of this phenomena since 1996, though back then it was in the hands of strategy specialist SSI. These days Silent Hunter is in the hands of Ubisoft Romania, but the classic sim remains remarkably true to the original, while offering a lot of new gameplay options.

And, of course, the very unpopular DRM system that requires players to be online at all times, and that stores save-games offsite. It's not been a popular move - already server issues have caused downtimes and blocked players from accessing their saves. Many diehard fans have even refused to buy the game at all.

We've had no problems during our reviewing, however, and it's a shame that more people aren't going to pick this up - because it really does deserve some attention.

The men behind the man
Silent Hunter 5 offers both single and multiplayer action, and a full branching campaign to boot. The campaign kicks off very cinematically, as Germany declares war on Poland, and then Britain joins her ally against Germany. It also wears its inspiration on its sleeve - every second character seems to sound like Jurgen Prochnow in Das Boot!

After helping your Captain sink a few Polish merchants, you return to port - it's almost a tutorial 'level', but it's a very light one, and from here on in the learning curve increases. Back at port, your Captain is assigned to a new boat, and you get bumped up to command of his old one.

For the first time in the game, much of the action is totally first person - you'll walk around dock talking to engineers to get your ship refitted or repaired, talk to officers to get new missions, and generally gawk at the scenery. It's the same on board, too; you can access every tiny compartment of your boat, talk with select crew, and even use some of the stations. Previous games made you the ghostly commander of an empty ship, but SH5's subs are alive with cooks preparing meals, scowling first officers, and eager watchmen.

The effort to bring some life to the game goes even further in terms of crew management. Not only can you train each crewman in various passive and active abilities (like giving your torpedo officer the ability to 'overheat' his torps, or making the hydrophone operator better at picking out contacts), you can talk to them about various personal issues, like home life or how they rate your chances against the royal navy. Such interactions can boost - or potentially harm - crew morale.

They even get scared and need good leadership when things get tough; which they almost certainly will. The game gives you a great sense of being in command, and walking through the boat after securing from battlestations is a supremely immersive - and satisfying - experience.

That sinking feeling
Also impressive is getting a firsthand view of an actual engagement.

Once a ship is sited, it's time to put on your thinking cap - you need to consider the enemy course, confirm the presence of military vessels (a lot of your targets are merchant vessels), and then work out how best to approach your target without detection.

Even when you are in range, you've then got to judge when to fire off your very limited torpedos - it's easy to miss.

There are a range of realism levels you can set the game to; this will affect how hands on or hands off your experience is. It's entirely possible to play without really 'doing' anything. You simply give orders and things happen. And, to be honest, that's very realistic, and SH5 is just as good at making combat immersive. The vagaries of war mean nothing's certain, so while you may get lucky with every torp strike, a few misses might mean you need to surface and use your deck gun; or perhaps the CO² levels in the cabin mean you need to surface right in the middle of a pursuit - you'll need to carefully manoeuvre to avoid damaging hits, and might even be called on to man an AA gun to fight off annoying aircraft.

Your customised crew come into their own during battle, too, and again, the first person nature of the game really brings home the war. To get a crewman to use any active abilities, whether it's your bosun's skill at calming the crew, or asking your radarman to take a guess at enemy positions, you'll need to physically talk to them. Juggling this with actually tracking and engaging the enemy is frantic fun.

And when it all comes together, the satisfaction of seeing a flaming ship sink beneath the waves is immense. Each time you feel like you've earnt it.

Plus, the game's engine is marvellous - explosions, environmental effects like clouds and fog log better than any other game. But the star of the graphics side of things are the water effects, which depict the most realistic waves we've seen in any game to date.

There's always a but...
But... there's that DRM issue, which every time you start up reminds you that you really are at the mercy of Ubisoft and their server engineers. Or the quality of your connection.

On top of that, long sessions can end up with slowed down framerates, and in our case at least, crashes and complete lock-ups. With such a detailed engine on top of a lot of variables to track (weather, multiple ships movements etc), the game really pushed our test rig at times.

But when all is said and done, the crashes are rare, and we always felt absolutely compelled to get straight back into the game. It is slow paced at times, but a sub sim should be. And for sheer tension, the game just cannot be beat.

In other words, it's title worth surfacing for.